Devon Herrick: FDA vs. Generic Drugs

In today's edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, National Center for Policy Analysis health care policy expert Devon Herrick joins Managing Editor of Health Care News Kenneth Artz. Herrick and Artz discuss how the policies of the U.S.

In today's edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, National Center for Policy Analysis health care policy expert Devon Herrick joins Managing Editor of Health Care News Kenneth Artz. Herrick and Artz discuss how the policies of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are needlessly driving up the cost of generic drugs.

Herrick says some drug inflation is due to slow action by the FDA, which has a backlog of around 4,000 abbreviated new drug applications. In other cases, the FDA is needlessly forcing consumers to pay higher prices to prove a drug that's been used safely for decades is actually safe. Currently, there are more than 1,000 drugs that preceded the FDA’s approval process and were grandfathered. Even though these have been around for decades, the FDA wants to get them off the market and replaced by a version that has been clinically tested and approved.